Field of the Disclosure
This disclosure generally relates to the use of a class of partially fluorinated porous materials which comprise porous molecular crystals to adsorb fluorinated anesthetics with high weight adsorption capacities. More particularly, the disclosure relates to the use of such porous molecular structures in the field of anesthesia, wherein the porous structures may be used to deliver anesthetic gases to a patient; and may be used to sequester anesthetic gases after the administration of the gases such as during a medical procedure or post-operatively.
Background of the Technology
Many anesthetics used in medicine are small and extensively fluorinated molecules. Sevoflurane is an example of such, and is used as an inhalation anesthetic for induction and maintenance of general anesthesia. However, sevoflurane is currently under review for potential neurotoxicity, especially relevant to administration in infants and children, and rare cases report that (akin to halothane hepatotoxicity) that low frequency liver injury may occur. As such there is an need for: not only a method of safely delivering anesthetic gases, but sequestering such gases post operatively, or should a subject react adversely to the anesthetic compound during a procedure.
Further, capture and release of fluorinated anesthetics is an important problem for a number of other reasons: they are expensive, and their recycling is economically beneficial; postoperative exposure of medical personnel to anesthetic vapors may also be harmful in the long term; their adsorption under well-defined conditions is useful in controlled-release devices; and finally, fluorinated anesthetics are potent greenhouse gases because anesthetics contribute about 0.03% to the global warming effect. Although this is a small contributory percentage, per unit of mass fluorinated anesthetics are damaging. Their tropospheric lifetimes are significant (from about 1.2 years for sevoflurane to about 10 years for desflurane), and their 20 year global warming potentials (GWP20) are hundreds of times higher than that of CO2. Some fluorinated anesthetics are also damaging to the tropospheric ozone layer.